


Cloudbank as Red knew it

by SoyaCat



Category: Transistor (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Romance, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-05-18 12:54:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5929200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoyaCat/pseuds/SoyaCat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompts and one shots! What Cloudbank was like to Red before the process took over her precious Cloudbank.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introductions

Red slipped off her dress and shrugged on her more comfortable attire, which happened to be a loose, grey pullover and a pair of jeans. Maybe Junction Jan’s would be open this late, she glance at the large clock in her changing room and chewed her lip, maybe not. It was late in the night if not early in the morning.

She yawned and stretched, it was a good day today. She had worked hard and tomorrow she was going to sleep in, and veg about. Red smiled at the thought, and cleaned up her things, shoving them into her bag before throwing it over her shoulder.

Maybe seafood was still opened, Red thought absently as she opened the door. A yelp behind the door made her jump.  

Red quickly looked behind the door a found a man with a box of scattered papers and chords next to him. He rubbed his face and then turned towards the box.

“I’m so sorry!” She exclaimed, tossing her things to the side. “Are you alright?”  She knelt next to him and started to gather the papers and chords.

“Fine, sorry about that, I was kind of lost in thought for…a…” He slowly looked at her and then shot back. She intently looked at him and furrowed her eyebrows.  “Red?”

“That’s my name.” She chuckled softly, collecting the last of his things and putting them back into the box. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, fine, sorry.” He cleared his throat. “I didn’t think you would be here so late.” He paused for a moment before lifting the box up. Red slung her bag over her shoulder and smiled at him. “I’m Boxer by the way.” He stuck out his hand.

Red looked at him, he had short dark hair and eyes to match. “Red.” She reached out and shook it, smiling. She was sure she had seen him before, somewhere but she couldn’t quite place him. He had a wide set frame, his sleeves of his jacket were rolled to his forearm and he wore wraps on his wrists.

“You were really great out there tonight.” He said, breaking the silence that she had unknowingly made.

“Thanks, you did great work back stage.” She smiled, taking a wild guess at where she had seen him before. His eyes widened ever so slightly and slowly. “I know technical work can’t be the easiest.” She did remember, vaguely, he had been running back and forth with chords in his hands, shouting at someone for something.

“It’s nothing.” He shrugged smiling.

The two talked for a while longer before Red pointed at the box that was held between his waist and his arm. “So where are you off to?”

Boxer frowned and the shot up, realizing something. “Oh” He slapped his forehead. “Riley needed these-” he glanced at a nearby clock, “-Ten minutes ago. I totally forgot. I should get going.”

“I’ll come with you.” Red found herself saying.

He furrowed his eyebrows, “Riley isn’t nice, when it comes to being late with his things, even with celebrities.” Boxer chuckled softly.  

Red felt her smile falter just a bit “Are you free after?” She chewed her lip. “I was just hoping to get some food… maybe you would be interested?”

Boxer smiled.  


	2. Lemon Cakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Lemon Cakes

Boxer had his hands stuffed in his pockets as he looked through the some odd book shelves that were placed outside. Red had just finished a book and she was having trouble looking for a new one, maybe he could find her one. It could be a nice surprise since Red was off looking at her own things. She had said something quick about a new bakery opening before she sprinted off promising him a cupcake on her return.

He hadn’t minded much; the harbour had a lot of small shops for him to look through. Boxer hovered over the shelves, scanning the novels. His fingers glided over the spines, his eyes scanning the titles before he took one out. He looked at the cover and immediately put it back.

Horror.

Not for Red, god knew she would be asking him to go everywhere with her afterwards. An amused smile spread across his face as he remembered the time she had tensed up at every sound, even a _month_ after watching some B horror movie about a psychic tire.

Boxer continued to look and then stopped at a rather large book. His finger traced its spine before he took in a deep breath. When he looked up he found that he had somehow scrounged through most of the shelves.

Red was taking a while. He furrowed his brow and then stepped back onto the sidewalk. _Is she alright?_ he thought. _Maybe I should go after her_.

But as if on cue he heard shouting and fast footsteps. Sprinting from the top of the hill where the bakery was located was a vibrant redhead, clutching something in her arms. And she wasn’t alone. There was a man behind her shaking his fists.

“You’ve taken too many!” he shouted.

“But they’re so good!” Boxer could hear that her mouth was full. It was hard to keep a look of horror off his face. Why was she running? The better question was, why was the man chasing her?

When Red caught sight of him, her smile widened.  “Boxer!” She laughed. “I’ve got food!”

“What did you get?” Boxer asked hesitantly as she ran towards him.

“We need to run!” She stopped in front of him for a moment, stuffing a small pastry in his mouth before she was off again.

He bit down on the pastry. “Lemon?” He blinked, and when he looked up, Red was already at the end of the harbor.  

The man whizzed past him a moment later. Boxer’s eyes widened and high-tailed toward his motorcycle. He hopped over some fences and sprinted to his bike.

 When he arrived he saw that Red was already sitting on the motorcycle quickly motioning to him. “C’mon! C’mon!”

Boxer slid into his seat and stuck the keys in, glancing back at her for a moment. “What did you do, exactly?”

“I might have taken too many samples of these cakes?” She smiled as she put another in her mouth. He looked down at her arms and saw a few safely cradled in a large napkin.

“Red…”

“These lemon cakes are _glorious._ ” Red smiled, and just as he saw the store owner turn the corner Boxer kicked back the stand, revved the engine and drove out of there.

“Thanks for the ride.” Red laughed, holding back her hair as they sped onto the freeway.


	3. Writing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt - Writing

She chewed on her lip and then waved her hand at Boxer who was on her couch, his feet stacked onto the coffee table.

“Does ‘all become’ sound controversial to you?” She asked glancing back at him. Boxer looked at her thoughtfully and straightened up. “

“What’s the context?” He asked crossing his arms.

Red chewed on her pencil and crossed out the line, and cradled her head in her hand. “Maybe not.” she mumbled “The radio stations are making me change the lyrics because they think the line is too controversial.” Looking at Boxer she twirled the pencils around her thumb.

She heard him get up from the couch and walk to her kitchen. “You should take a break.”

“I have to get this done.” Red frowned, her eyes trained on the piece of paper. She listened to Boxer move around in the kitchen before she turned to him. “What are you doing?”

“Tea.” he simply said. “Want a cup?”

She gave him a lazy smile and answered, “Please.”

It was a couple minutes later that he was behind her with two steaming cups in his hands. “Tea, for the lady.” He handed her a small cup and kissed her head. She took the cup and inhaled in the soft aroma.

“My favourite.” She breathed and leaned back into her chair. Boxer, with his free hand, rubbed her shoulders and then picked up the paper on the table and glanced through it. She looked up, her head leaning back against his abdomen. 

“‘All become one’ sounds fine to me.” he said. “I don’t see why you need to change it. Just keep it as it is.” Boxer slid the paper back onto the table. “Now come on, take a break you’ve been sitting there for hours.”

 “I don’t want to get into any more trouble.” Red sighed, sipping her tea. “The last time…” The memory of the man charging up on stage screaming at her, sent shivers down her back. If it hadn’t for Boxer who had dragged him away from her who knows what could have happened.

Boxer put down his cup and turned her to face him. “That’s not going to happen, and if it does I’ll be right there, alright?”

She smiled and nodded, she had nothing to fear with Boxer next to her. He pulled her into a hug and then pointed at the television. “Now, are we going to be lazy or not? Last I remember I think a couch date is overdue.”

Red chuckled. “Alright, I’ll go pop some popcorn.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt - Complicated - Red is curious about Boxer's hand wraps

“I’ve always wanted a motorcycle.” Boxer said flipping through a small magazine. “Like this one.” He flipped it around and showed Red who was at her usual spot, at her table.  She looked back and scrunched her nose.

“I’ve always pegged you to be more a sports car person.” She chuckled, folding her arms on the back of the chair. “It looks so old don’t you want one of those new, sportier ones?”

Boxer flipped through a couple more pages.  “Nah, I like how old ones looks, it looks more…” he trailed off.  “I don’t know, rustic.”

That it did look, it looked like it could rust at the smell of water. She smiled watching him flip through a couple more pages before her eyes focused on the bandage looking wraps on his arms. Red rested her head onto her arms.

“Speaking of rustic,” she started, catching Boxer’s attention, “what are those… wraps for?”

“That has to be the most amazing segue out of a conversation I’ve ever heard.”  He chuckled softly as he returned back to his magazine as if to tell her that he wasn’t up for to answer but Red was too curious.  

“So what are they for?” She tilted her head with a small grin on her face. “Are you covering tattoos that show that you were from a ruthless gang?”

“You’ve got one wild imagination, Red.” He laughed.

Red chuckled and waited for his answer, but instead he only held up another page of the magazine showing a red sports car. “Can you believe how much gas these chug down on a daily? These eat better than I do.” 

“Oh no, you’re not changing the subject on me.” She crossed the room and took a seat across from him, a pout forming on her lips. “Come on, don’t I even get a hint?”

Boxer lowered the magazine and then took in a deep breath. “Fine, I’ll tell you.” He motioned her towards him to which Red was happy to oblige. She sat close to him, intently looking at Boxer as he looked at his wraps.

“I’ve never told anyone this, and it’s…” His voice was low as he trailed off. “It’s not something I like to talk about, but I think I can tell you.”

Red gulped her hands pressing on his. “I… if you want to.” She frowned feeling a little guilty but Boxer simply waved his hands in a dismissing manner.

“Somebody should know.” he said, pausing for a moment and then continued.  “When I was younger, I… well Cloudbank was doing clinical trials on a new drug they were going to sell to the public.”

“What was it for?” Red asked moving slowly closer to him.

Boxer cleared his throat “Nothing really, it was supposed to be some cosmetic drug to clear skin. Anyway, I entered in and long story short…” He trailed off and rubbed his wrists. “It failed and people died. I was lucky that it only messed up my skin. They paid for reconstruction but in order for us to keep us quiet about the procedures they used and the drug, they had us marked so that if we were to ever speak about this to the authorities, they would find us.”

Red looked at him wide eyed, “Are you serious? We need to go to the police about this! People died!” She frantically looked around for her phone but when she saw the large grin on Boxer’s face, she smacked his arm. “Oh ha ha, very funny.” She frowned and crossed her arms.

Boxer laughed, wrapping his arm around her and then giving her a kiss on the side of her head. “I was joking. Look, the reason is that it’s complicated.”

“Fine.” She huffed. “You could have just said that.”

“I’m sorry alright?” He laughed and kissed her again. “Will you forgive me?”

“I’m going to get you back so hard, just watch.” She smirked.


	5. Only Human

Red gripped her hand that was dragging the blade behind her when she caught her reflection in one of the tall glass buildings that she and Boxer passed nearly every day.  And though the building was familiar, she couldn’t quite say the same to the woman staring back.

Her hair was matted down with sweat. Beads of sweat dripped from her forehead. Her eyes were weary, ringed with black from the lack of sleep. She could see welts and scratches from her last battle decorating her arms.

She looked worn and ready to collapse.

“Are you alright Red?” Boxer asked quietly. She clutched the hilt tightly.

The question was laughable. No, Red wanted to answer. She hadn’t been alright since she had been suddenly transported out of theatre and was told to fight the process that was taking over her whole town. She hadn’t been alright since Boxer had been hit by the transistor. She hadn’t been alright since… what seemed like an eternity ago.

They had all disappeared and she had not the slightest clue on how to make them come back. She was only one person. There was no way she could possibly figure all of this on her own. She was a _singer_. This wasn’t part of skill set. 

The only thing she wanted to do was to wake up. She wanted to wake up and find that this was all just a bad dream. She wanted to find Boxer comfortably next to her, his arm draped over her body and drool crusting his face.

She never thought that she would yearn for her everyday stressful life again. She could feel the burn behind her eyes as she fell to her knees, hugging the blade tightly wishing that Boxer could hug back.

“Red, it’s going to be alright.” Boxer reassured but she found no comfort in his words.

She made awkward sounds with her throat and shook her head. No, it wasn’t going to be alright, nothing was going to be alright. She couldn’t possibly fix this. How was she going to save people? She was just one human on Cloudbank.

She wished that boxer was here, she wished Junction Jans would open again. She wished she could see her manager and all those people who hated her music and threatened to throw rotten vegetables at her. She wished she could just make everything normal again.

Her shoulders started to shake and tears started to roll down her cheeks as she clutched the blade closer to her as if she could somehow feel Boxer that way.

“We’ll get through this. One way or another we’ll find the Camorada and they’ll pay for what they’ve done and they’ll return everyone to Cloudbank. We can do this.”

She could only wish she could share in her partner’s certainty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! There was a lot going on, exams and then I was away for some time. I hope to be posting regularly now!

**Author's Note:**

> Critique is always welcomed! I would love to hear what you think!


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